


It's Over

by starkravinghazelnuts



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, IW SPOILERS, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Steve Rogers (mentioned) - Freeform, this movie wrecked me and oh god I need to make it better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 03:18:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14463843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkravinghazelnuts/pseuds/starkravinghazelnuts
Summary: He can still hear Steve sometimes. Hear the painful relief in his voice.We did it. It’s over.





	It's Over

**Author's Note:**

> INFINITY WAR SPOILERS. Please don't read if you don't want spoilers.

He can still hear Steve sometimes. Hear the painful relief in his voice. _We did it. It’s over._

**

There are the Guardians, the fallen Wakandans, Barnes, Strange, Fury, Hill, all coming back like they had never left. But they had. And there is a wild, frantic look in their eyes that tells him they know. Know exactly what it is like to die. And Peter. Peter is back, and Tony can feel his chest clench with guilt and happiness and fear all together. God, he never wanted the kid to mean so much. Be so much. And yet here he is - paralysed by the weight of all his emotions. Because everything about the kid is good and innocent and _bright_ and he had just wanted to build an iron fortress around it and live there – because that was the kind of future he had envisioned. And everything about that dream had crumbled in his arms. And here he is once again. But once again he can feel that dream crumble. Peter might be back, but his eyes are jaded and _dull._ And Tony doesn’t know what to do. Not then, not now. _Nice to have you back, kid._

Peter, bless his heart, seems to understand. _Thanks for bringing me back, Mr. Stark._

And then finally, finally, the kid gets his Tony Stark hug.

_It’s over._

**

But it isn’t over. Not really.

It isn’t over because Peter wakes up running an arm down his body, making sure it’s still there.

It isn’t over because Tony has a near constant tremor in his arm and a prescription for sleeping pills and Pepper and Happy and Rhodey and Peter’s (and and _and_ ) vitals constantly displayed on his watch.

It isn’t over because there is a damn statue of Captain America in the middle of Brooklyn with a plaque that reads _Earth’s Best Defender._

**

Five years and it is over. It has to be.

The world moves on. People move on. There is a whole new crop of Avengers to train.

And then there is Morgan. Apparently, Tony had managed to get attached to the name and there he is - a pink, wailing bundle in Pepper’s arms – and Tony goes and writes Morgan on the birth certificate, much to Pepper’s consternation.

After Thanos, Tony had thought that that was it. Nothing, _nothing_ could terrify him more. Nothing could leave him stumped. And yet he stands there, his vision blurred with tears, when he is handed his son for the first time, speechless with fear.

And the fear is always there. When Morgan begins crawling. When he takes his first steps. Says his first words. And neither Tony, nor Pepper would trade it for the world.

And then Morgan waddles into the workshop, little fists rubbing sleep out of his blurry eyes, brown hair sticking out at all sorts of odd angles and Tony swears he can feel his heart swell to thrice its size. This, as it turns out, is quite inconvenient when he finds it lodged in his throat after Morgan speaks.

“Dad? I don’t feel so good.”

_I don’t want to go, sir. I don’t want to go._

His son is looking up at him, wide eyed and trusting and Tony can’t breathe. His skin feels too tight. And the workshop’s white walls take on a sickeningly familiar orange-ish hue. And his hands are shaking. And his son is running forward to hug him. Oh god. _Not now. Not again. Not again._ And in some recess of his mind, he thinks, _Morgan shouldn’t have to see this._ But every other part of him is screaming at him to check on his kid – not his, _the_ kid, not his - until he is utterly convinced that he is fine.

“Hey Mr. Stark, FRIDAY said you wanted to talk?”

And Tony wants to cry in relief and thank his AI and hold his son and hold Peter and yet all he manages to do is nod mutely.

“Spidey!”

“Hey little guy! Where’s your dad?”

“He’s here. But I told him I don’t feel good and then he started breathing funny.”

The ensuing silence that ensconces them is so stifling that Tony feels himself slipping again. And then Peter’s face is there, projected in front of him – solid and whole. And then he raises his arms as if to say, _It’s okay, I’m all here._

And slowly the staccato of his heart tapers back to normal. His breathing evens. His vision focuses.

“It’s over,” he says, not sure whether he’s referring to his anxiety attack or the war.

“It is,” Peter agrees.


End file.
